1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage, having a treatment device for treating beverage container caps.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine. Upon filling, a closing station closes the filled bottles. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. Bottles may be labeled in a labeling station, the labeling station having a conveyer arrangement to receive bottles and to output bottles. The closing station and the labeling station may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement.
A similar treatment device of the prior art is described in the subsequently published German Patent Application 10238633.1. A corresponding design was also previously disclosed by the publication of the brochure entitled “KHS Alfill Sterile CAP”.
A device of this type is used to transport caps in a continuous, single-track or optionally also a multiple-track stream on a track for a relatively long period of time. The caps can be treated with a sterile gas during this period, for example, or before they enter the illustrated treatment device they can be treated with a treating fluid, such as H2O2 for example, which is vaporized in the device by the addition of air and heat. The continuous stream of caps must be treated in the device for a relatively long period of time, i.e. it must travel a relatively long distance.
The generic design of the prior art has a tower with carrier rings, whereby the transfer chutes connect carrier rings on different tiers of one and the same tower. Caps are thereby transported on a track in which they lie one behind the other alternately on carrier rings or transfer chutes. On the carrier rings, they are carried along by friction, i.e. driven, while they slide passively on the transfer chutes. As shown by the designs cited as the closest prior art, the transport is very smooth, and in particular no problems occur with jamming or backups.
In designs of the prior art, however, that can be said only for caps of a standard design, i.e. caps that have an essentially cylindrical basic shape. The fundamental problem is described below:
In the designs of the prior art, the transfer chutes are required to loop around the tower over a certain angle at circumference of 45°, for example, and therefore when viewed from overhead they run on a track that runs essentially in the circumferential direction. In addition, they must overcome the height difference from one tier to the next, which is determined essentially by the tallest cap that can be processed. Because the chutes must enter both carrier rings, at which they emerge with their rings, horizontally, the transfer chutes must have a downward curvature and a subsequent upward curvature in the vertical direction. In some areas, the surface of the transfer chutes must therefore be in the form of a helicoid surface.
Consequently, caps that lie one behind another on the transfer chute tip toward one another, and namely both around the axis of their direction of transport as well as around the transverse axis that runs perpendicular to the direction of transport. With caps that have a cylindrical basic shape, these mutual tipping movements do not cause major problems., But when the caps have a different basic shape, the caps become blocked and get stuck in the path that is described by the transfer chute, which has lateral boundaries.
Therefore, some shapes of caps that are extremely attractive for modern industrial applications cannot be processed using the devices of the prior art because of the danger of jamming. That is the case, in particular with sport caps, i.e. caps that have a built-in closure, a complicated shape and in particular a smaller diameter on the top than on the bottom. Even very flat caps, the basic shape of which is essentially that of a coin, of the type that are used, for example, as flat sealing caps underneath screw-on caps, cannot be processed, because their very low edges tend to ride over each other when they tip.